Professor İştar Gözaydın released from prison by an İstanbul court

Prominent professor and social scientist İştar Gözaydın, who has been behind bars since Dec. 20, 2016 on terror charges, has been released from prison by an İstanbul court following the court’s acceptance of an indictment prepared by prosecutor about her on Thursday. However, Prof. Gözaydın has been barred from international travel by the same court decision.

Gözaydın was detained on Dec. 20 as part of an investigation conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into the faith-based Gülen movement. She was arrested on Dec. 27. The professor was head of the sociology department at the İzmir-based Gediz University, which was shut down by government decree along with thousands of other educational institutions in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15.

A former Fulbright scholar, Gözaydın had worked as a research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and is also among the founders of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a Turkish-based human rights organization.

The failed military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratis President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.